Support your local CSA

April 08, 2009

Here at Studio-e, we like to eat. Though most of us have a weakness for chocolate (total understatement), we also appreciate freshly grown fruits and vegetables. Strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, avocados, red, yellow and orange peppers, snow peas, spinach, carrots.

Because we tend to buy many of these locally-grown, organic fruits and vegetables about, oh, two or three times a week, this year we decided to participate in a CSA.

For those of you who don’t know what it is, Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA) enables people to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. The Local Harvest website outlines the process: “A farmer offers a certain number of ‘shares’ to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (a.k.a., a ‘membership’ or a ‘subscription’) and in return receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.”

While a CSA offers us many obvious advantages, it also benefits the farmer, in that he’s able to spend time marketing his food before his days in the field begin; he receives payment early in the season, which helps alleviate the farm’s financial pressures; and, of course, a CSA offers a farmer individual community support and repeat business.